Month: September 2026

Without Saying So Directly, Nokia Asserts its Right to Play in Physical AI

by John Marcus, posted in Big Data
Headshot of a man with short gray hair and a friendly smile, wearing a black jacket over a collared shirt, against a soft blue background.
John Marcus – Senior Principal Analyst, Enterprise Mobility and IoT Services.

Summary Bullets:

  • Nokia’s Cognitive Operations launch is less about another edge platform and more about staking a claim in physical AI, bringing intelligence and connectivity to real operational environments.
  • But “physical AI” is already getting crowded and cloud-led, with Nokia’s platform story at risk of being dismissed as repackaging connectivity plus analytics unless it leads to visible, scaled deployments.

Nokia didn’t use the term “Physical AI” in its announcement, but its new Cognitive Operations (CO) platform reads like a carefully constructed argument for why it belongs in that conversation. Physical AI is not just AI applied to industrial data; it is AI that perceives, decides, and supports action in the physical world, often in real time, often with incomplete connectivity, and often where failure carries operational, financial, or human consequences. This is the exact scope that Nokia is targeting with CO, initially for mining, construction, public safety, and defense. Specific examples of platform capabilities include vehicle-as-a-node, local inferencing (GPU/TPU), video/sensor analytics, safety interventions (driver fatigue/collision), and independent continuity (where operations continue despite disconnection).

Continue reading “Without Saying So Directly, Nokia Asserts its Right to Play in Physical AI” →

Salesforce Expands the Value of Slackbot with the Introduction of Slackforce Surfaces

by Gregg Willsky, posted in Cloud Enable, Communicate
Close-up portrait of a smiling man wearing glasses.
G. Willsky

Summary Bullets:

• Slackforce Surfaces are front doors into data and context that enable users to grasp a deeper understanding of their business and make more informed decisions.

• Slackforce Surfaces represent the latest chapter in the renaissance of Slackbot, advancing Slack as a key part of the Salesforce organization.

Salesforce has deepened its investment in Slackbot, the AI-driven personal work agent built into Slack, with the debut of Slackforce Surfaces. The introduction will raise the utility of the Slack platform and further cement the starring role Slack has come to play at Salesforce.

Continue reading “Salesforce Expands the Value of Slackbot with the Introduction of Slackforce Surfaces” →

A New Breed of Conversational AI is Leading to Voice Resurgence in Customer Service

by orumohiuddin, posted in Big Data, IT Leader
Oru Mohiuddin

Summary Bullets:

• Conversational AI is driving a major voice resurgence in customer service by improving the IP voice experience.

• Long call queues on account of human agents being thinly stretched across large call volumes have led to customer frustrations and poor CX, but modern versions of conversational AI are set to change that by taking away the frictions associated with voice.

It was believed that voice would diminish in value as digital channels started to emerge as an alternative to the voice channel. While messaging and chatbots offer cost and scale advantages, GlobalData’s research shows that voice continues to remain a vital channel for connecting with customers despite the frictions. Voice provides instant gratification and tends to be more straightforward to use as it does not involve navigating through messaging channels, websites and so and having to type messages. While the elderly demography tends to prefer voice due to greater familiarity, voice is seen to be popular even with the younger generation.

Continue reading “A New Breed of Conversational AI is Leading to Voice Resurgence in Customer Service” →

Public Opposition to New Data Centers Disrupts but Doesn’t Derail US Facilities’ Expansion

by Amy Larsen DeCarlo, posted in Big Data
Amy Larsen DeCarlo – Principal Analyst, Security and Data Center Services

Summary Bullets:

  • As rapid advances in AI application development drive demand for more processing capacity, US-based cloud providers are investing heavily in building out facilities to support these deployments.
  • But not everyone is on board with expansion plans, with public criticism stalling some development efforts, forcing hyperscalers to pivot to new locations, often in more remote areas.

AI is changing the cloud landscape, creating the near-term need for a vast increase in processing power and storage space. Hyperscalers are responding with substantial facility construction plans. Just this year alone, Amazon Web Services, Google, and Microsoft Azure are pouring a total of $500 to $700 billion into extensions of their data center footprints. Given AI’s dominance in enterprise technology investment plans, this is a logical track. However, not everyone is on board with these aggressive development plans -and AI plays a role in that resistance.

Continue reading “Public Opposition to New Data Centers Disrupts but Doesn’t Derail US Facilities’ Expansion” →

Google’s New Tools Support ‘Value Maxxing’ to Address Organizations’ Growing Concern Over AI ROI and Tokenomics

by Rena Bhattacharyya, posted in Big Data
R. Bhattacharyya

Summary Bullets:

• After a period of ‘token maxxing,’ organizations are looking to reign in and better control inference costs.

• Instead, enterprises are now embracing ‘value-maxxing,’ which focuses on outcomes.

Last week, Google announced several enhancements to Gemini Enterprise designed to help enterprises obtain greater and faster ROI on their AI projects. The improvements address one of the biggest frustrations expressed by organizations today, namely that the benefits promised by AI are taking too long to realize. Companies are clamoring for domain specific solutions in order to speed the deployment, reduce the integration complexity, and increase the value obtained from AI projects. Additionally, business leaders are eager for better tools to help them manage AI costs. They are looking for improved visibility on token use and costs, more proactive spending controls, and more flexible payment options.

Continue reading “Google’s New Tools Support ‘Value Maxxing’ to Address Organizations’ Growing Concern Over AI ROI and Tokenomics” →